This Thursday's episode of Lost, "Confirmed Dead," even John Locke, the No. 1 proponent of island secrets, is ready for some answers. So, while we're not exactly sure who Others-leader Ben knows on the elusive ocean liner, or what the heck is going on with invisible Jacob in that cabin, we do know that those parachuting, sat-phone-using "rescuers" are not there for any rescuing. Also, the helicopter we saw spinning out of control at the end of the season premiere not only landed safely but appears set to lift Jack and the gang back to the freighter. Well, just as Sawyer doesn't buy Locke's "Walt told me so" mumbo-jumbo, we're not buying this helicopter story.

According to helicopter passenger and alleged physicist Dan Faraday, the sketchy "rescue" crew was flying through an electrical storm when the chopper's controls went dead and he parachuted out. The pilot, Frank Lapidus, elaborates on this story, telling us that the chopper was struck by lightning. But being the master pilot he is, he managed to land the chopper unharmed in a small clearing in the jungle (pictured above).

Really? Could even the most experienced of helicopter pilots take a direct lightning hit, only to land in brush on a dark island, without night vision or a working instrument panel? "Not a chance," says pilot Patrick Braman, who's been flying helicopters for the U.S. Army for three years. "At least in that thing."

The Lost chopper—a blue aircraft with N842M painted on the side—is an old Huey UHI, and this model was developed in the Vietnam era for troop insertion. "There's a scene where you get a small glimpse of his gadgets," Braman says. "They're old, out of date, and everything is analog. They're not nearly as advanced as the helicopters of today."

Even while it's possible to land an older helicopter without the aid of its instruments, the conditions through which Lapidus flew makes a successful landing highly improbable. "They're flying at night on an unlit island with no night-vision goggles. And they're flying over the ocean—that's even worse. You have no reference to the ground," Braman says. "And he was flying as a single pilot, so he'd have a hard time seeing out of the other side of the aircraft." So much for that perfect landing.

Even assuming Lapidus is, in fact, the world's best helicopter pilot—darkness be damned—the odds of the Huey working less than 24 hours later aren't exactly as rock-solid as Sayid implies. "A helicopter like that being struck by lightning is pretty catastrophic—a significant amount of electrical damage would occur," Braman says. "There's lots of wiring that wouldn't stand that kind of shock. It would be difficult to just hop up there and crank it back up."

Could something besides lightning have caused the helicopter to lose control? After all, we know there are some funky electromagnetic forces on the island. "Their compasses and gauges are basically of the primitive style," Braman says. "In the aircrafts we use today, those would be a 'just-in-case' extra—not to be relied on." Another force for disaster would certainly explain how Dan, Miles, Charlotte and Naomi made it down to land; Braman says a lightning strike would probably have caused enough damage to the aircraft to prevent four separate individuals from parachuting out one at a time: "Frank being able to fly long enough to let four people eject is really unlikely. You just don't have that kind of time." Could the island be up to more of its trickery? Tune in to PM's Lost Watch next Friday and find out. —Erin Scottberg

(Note: We also spoke with Nick Mayhew, general manager of Bristow Academy in Florida, who explained that modern helicopters can, in fact, withstand a lightning strike, since most of them feature built-in circuit breaker to protect an aircraft's instruments in an over-voltage situation.

"If you're in the air, and you get struck my lightning, the equipment that is in use at the time can receive what's called an over-voltage," Mayhew says. "It makes everything go a lot quicker, and the instruments will shut down because you've had an extra charge of electricity. And if the aircraft is struck mid-flight, the charge has nowhere else to go—it stays in the aircraft frame." In that case, the chopper would discharge as soon as it touches the ground, so presumably all Sayid would have to do is reset the circuit breaker to get the instruments up and running, and it's rescue time. "There may be occasions where some of the equipment will be damaged—basically burned out—if the protection circuit didn't work," Mayhew says. But that would mean the safety equipment failed.)

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